When electronic mail was first developed, it was devised for one purpose, and
one purpose only: To peddle pills of Viagra.

Because internet marketers love teaching others about medicine and the
alphabet, the word "Viagra" is always spelled in hot, new,
creative ways. For example, it might have a lower case "L" in the
space where a capital "I" would go, or perhaps an "@" symbol
where the letter "a" should be.

After I received 80,730 different emails trying to sell viagra, I started to
wonder: How many different ways are there to spell Viagra?

I began my quest by simply collecting the Viagra spellings that showed up in
my email. In 12 days, I had 79.

Two techniques were used:

One letter substitutions

Extra characters included inside the word

One letter substitutions

I know three different ways to portray the letter "V". Capital,
small, and with two opposing slashes. If the name of Pfizer's product was simply
"V", there would only be three ways to spell the name: V, v and \/.

If it was called "VI", the name could be spelled with any V
and any of the 12 forms of the I. All kinds of stuff can substitute for
an I, including a number one, a vertical bar and a colon. Multiply the
variations of V (3) by the variations of I (12) to get total number of
variations: (36).

There are also 17 ways to portray an "A", two ways to
portray a G, three ways to show an R.

V

I

A

G

R

A

V, v, \/

I i 1 l | ï ì : Ì Î
Í Ï

A a @ /\ á à â ã ä å æ À Á Â Ã Ä Å

G g

R r ®

A a @ /\ á à â ã ä å æ À Á Â Ã Ä Å

3 variations

12 variations

17 variations

2 variations

3 variations

17 variations

Using this variety of characters, in different combinations, there are 62,424
(3 x 12 x 17 x 2 x 3 x 17) ways to portray the name Viagra.

Extra characters included inside the word

Here is where it gets crazy.

The word Viagra can be recognized even with a few extra characters
interspersed among the letters of the word:

Some actual examples I've been emailed are in the orange table below:

Viagorea

ViagDrHa

V l a g r a

VyAGRA

via---gra

viagrga

via-gra

'V 1 @ G' Ra

Viagzra

viagdra

via_gra

ViaZUgra

Viargvra

ViagrYa

Vii-agra

ViagWra

vi(@)gr@

Viagvra

V-I-A-G-R-A

Vi-ag.ra

vigra

Vkiagra

via.gra

v-ii-a=g-ra

V l A G R A

VIA7GRA

V/i/a/g/r/a

VIxAGRA

Viaggra

vi@gr|@|

ViaTagra

ViaVErga

Viagr(a

Viagr^a

Viágrá

Viagara

Viag@ra

Viag&ra

vi@g*r@

V-i.a-g*r-a

V1@grA

ViaaPrga

Vi$agra

ViaJ1gra

Viag$ra

via---gra

Vi.ag.ra

Viaoygra

Vi/agra

Viag%ra

Viarga

V|i|a|g|r|a

Viag)ra

vi@|g|r@

Viag&ra

vi**agra

vi@gr*@

vi-@gr@

V iagr a

V&iagra

There are seven spaces between the letters, and if there are two options for
each space (an asterix or no asterix) there are 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2
different varieties (128). For example, with the asterix, Viagra could be spelled 127
different ways.

The irregular characters are least obtrusive when they aren't proper letters of
the alphabet. Well utilized are the hyphen, the vertical bar, the space band,
the comma, the slashes, and the asterix (- | , / \ * ). However, many other
characters are used, and any of these 192 could be used.

If any of these 192 characters can be used, in any combination,
between the letters V I A G R and A, there are an astronomical number of
combinations. Not
every combination leaves "viagra" as a discernable, legible word.
Putting a
character in front of the V isn't recommended.